The present invention relates in general to an ion accelerator in which a charge neutralized ring of ions can be accelerated to energies up to 1 GeV and beyond through use of an inductive accelerating electric field.
There are many applications for high current, high energy ion accelerators, such as drivers for inertial confinement nuclear fusion, intense neutron sources for transmutation of radioactive wastes and other research and industrial uses. In a high current accelerator, by definition, the number of ions in a particle bunch to be accelerated must be large. Above a critical number density, space charge neutralization by electrons is essential. Charged neutralized bunches of ions, however, cannot be accelerated by a longitudinal electric field. For electrostatic acceleration, a transverse magnetic field which insulates the electrons has been employed successfully in intense ion diodes. This technique, however, is applicable only to single stage acceleration or at most two stage acceleration, thus limiting the ion energy to the range of 10-20 MeV, For multistage acceleration to higher energies of 100 MeV to 1 GeV, the accelerating electric field must be inductive. A need therefore exists for an accelerator structure and method by which particles can be accelerated using an inductive accelerating field.